Are you looking to improve your running form? Or do you feel that you don’t have enough pop in your ankles or kick in your hips? Well, take a look at this video from Mark Buckingham, a member of the British Triathlon Team and TriGold squad. He offers advice to kick start some good quality movement patterns which will help you to improve your running form.

TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR RUNNING FORM

Here are some additional tips for the drills:

POSTURE AND THE PELVIS CUES

First and foremost, hold your head high and your hips high. This stacks them nicely over each other. To prevent your pelvis tilting and overarching your lower back, try to imagine you’re wearing a belt and focus on the cue. Keep your belt buckle up to keep your pelvis and spine in neutral positions.

ARMS

With all of the drills, make sure you’re getting the most from your arms. Drive one arm forward whilst the other drives back. Make sure you combine this with the opposite leg movements to create more power. Keep the elbows bent to around 90 degrees and try not to let them cross over your body as you swing.

TIPS FOR IMPROVING DRILLS

Here are some additional tips for the drills:

High Knees Drill (10 reps, 3-5 sets)

Don’t just focus on the knee lift, but also on the downward push of the foot to the ground. Land with a fore-mid foot strike and immediately drive the other foot down. This creates an increased hip extension torque.

Heel Flicks Drill (10 reps, 3-5 sets)

As you can see in the video, there is a small knee lift. This means that the heel comes from below and up to the buttock. This should not be like a hamstring curl, where the heel strikes from behind.

High Skips Drill (10 reps, 3-5 sets)

Focus on good spring through the push off. Try to combine this with a strong opposite knee lift and arm swing.

Side Skips Drill (5 reps each side, 3-5 sets)

Start slowly so you don’t fall over! On the hurdle drills it is fine to use mini-hurdles, or even no hurdles at all. However, just make sure you achieve good height with your knees.

A BRIEF SUMMARY

In summary, these drills are designed to help you develop efficient and effective movement patterns for running. What’s more, they are perfect near the beginning of your training session. However, if these are new movements to you, we recommend you incorporate them gradually into your routine. To start with, we recommend you leave a day in between sessions, thus allowing your body to adapt and recover from fatigue.

They can have an effect on your neuromuscular system relatively quickly. For this reason, aim for 8-10 sessions over 3 weeks and you should notice some really positive gains. We hope you enjoy running through these drills and that they help you improve your running form. It would be great to hear how you get on.

APPOINTMENTS

If you need help to improve your running form, why not book an appointment with us at The Putney Clinic.  Call us on 0208 789 3881 or use our online appointment booking system.